Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Digital television (TV) broadcasting systems such as satellite TV, cable TV, and Internet TV (e.g., Internet Protocol TV (IPTV)) may be implemented exclusively from one another or complementary to one another in order to provide a wide variety of high-quality content. Such digital systems provide various advantages over conventional analog systems because the video and audio content are stored in digital format. For example, such digital systems may facilitate manipulation of video and/or audio content and support a wider range of recording options for video and/or audio content (e.g., optical, hard disc, Random-Access Memory (RAM), etc.).
Satellite TV systems, for instance, typically broadcast content to a number of users simultaneously in a system. Satellite TV systems also offer subscription or pay-per-view access to broadcast content. Access is provided using signals broadcast over the satellite, and the user can then access the particular content.
Many satellite TV systems include a set-top box that contains a TV-tuner input and functions to receive and decode the satellite signals, thereby changing the satellite signals into a form of content that can then be displayed on a TV screen or other display device. A set-top box typically includes memory, and may take the form of (or include) a digital video recorder (DVR) or other recording means. A DVR may encode and store received video content in compressed digital formats such as MPEG-4 for future retrieval by a user. In this manner, users are able to view high quality video content at any desired time without deterioration of image quality. Other digital TV broadcasting systems may employ the use of set-top boxes and related technology as well.